'Stop the Steal' Facebook group that gathered hundreds of thousands of members in support of Trump is shut down

Group called for ‘boots on the ground to protect integrity of vote’

A Facebook group that gathered hundreds of thousands of members in support of Donald Trump has been taken down by the social media platform.

The “Stop the Steal” group, which called for “boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote,” was set up on Wednesday while swing states continued to count ballots.

On Thursday afternoon, as the Facebook group spread misinformation about the legitimacy of the remaining ballots in multiple states, the social media platform shut it down.

“In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the group ‘Stop the Steal,’ which was creating real-world events,” Facebook told The Independent.

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“The group was organised around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group,” the social media platform added.

Prior to Facebook taking the group down, “Stop the Steal” urged members to sign up to email updates, “in the event that social media censors this group.”

“Stop the Steal,” created by the President Trump supporting action group, Women for America First, gained more than 365,000 members in 48 hours.

Women for America First supported Mr Trump during his impeachment trial, and has organised rallies against Covid-19 restrictions in recent months, according to Reuters.

The group’s administrators and moderators included veteran Tea Party activist Amy Kremer and her daughter Kylie Jane Kremer.

In-person events were also scheduled by the group for Saturday in contested states, to “demand transparency and to count the LEGAL votes.”

Some users of “Stop the Steal” called for violence, as one wrote: “Grab your guns, the second amendment is not about hunting, and how many bullets you need it about taking down a tyrannical government,” according to Vice News.

Multiple posts on the group also falsely accused Democrats of “scheming” to steal the election with a plot to “nullify Republican votes,” which echoed comments Mr Trump has made since 3 November’s election.

Mr Trump falsely claimed victory in the election on Wednesday morning, while he was shown to be winning Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan by a large margin.

However, the results shifted more in favour of Democratic challenger Joe Biden when mail-in-ballots and city votes were counted as the night progressed. The states did not start counting mail-in-ballots until after polls closed.

In reaction, the Trump campaign issued lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, in an attempt to stop the counts in the states, as it falsely claimed that widespread fraud had taken place with the remaining ballots. The lawsuits in Georgia and Michigan were dismissed by judges on Thursday.

Facebook, alongside Twitter, has been attempting to stop the spread of misinformation about the US election, by labelling posts that contain inaccurate information.